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RPLog:Weapons Testing Gone Awry
Main Hangar - Ord Mantell Solo Base's primary hangar is absolutely cavernous, cut deeply into the solid rock of the cliffs rising above New Alderaan. The hangar proper is roughly rectangular, with a gently trapezoidal cross-section reminiscent of the hangars of most New Republic capital ships, albeit much, much wider in scale. It is a feircely utilitarian design, with the only real decoration being the large Republic Seal proudly dominating the back wall. Row after row of bright floodlights illuminate the hangar from overhead, interspersed with heavy utility cranes running on tracks and regular tractor beam emplacements to assist ground crews in their work. The hangar's around-the-clock activities are predominately given over to supporting operation of New Republic starfighters, with rows and rows of the base's sleek craft tucked into recesses in either side when not being prepped for flight, repaired, or serviced after landing. The hangar also commonly serves a variety of smaller Republican craft, handling shuttles and transports to keep the exterior pads free during periods of extra activity, and with the Ground Vehicle Motor Pool directly off of the hangar towards the back, it is quite common to see military cargo and personnel speeders, as well as tanks and artillery, crossing the hangar to the feild outside at least as often as one sees the starfighters. Outside, pink clouds move swiftly. Various pieces of small debris can be seen blowing about outside. As she is looking over a few of the shuttles in the main hangar bay, Talia simply shakes her head. "Bloody hell." says she, before returning to her datapad, then back towards the starfighters. "Karking after-action reports... Ye'd think that the New Republic wos starting t' fall under the same kind of bureaucratic bantha poodoo that killed the Auld Republic..." She shakes her head, tapping in a few things on her datapad again... Mella comes walking up "ahh is the old woman getting cranky again." said to give some levity to the cranky dark skined woman. "But whats wrong this time, I just got back from Krehal." said as she doesnt know anythingabout whats going on. >>WHOOSH<< The doors to the turbolift open, ruffling the twin tails of Ti'Ilandria Di-Inaris as she adjusts her duty jacket, and then the shirt beneath. The woman then reaches up to pat at her hair, making certain it isn't tussled. And if anyone was ever wearing a silly, lopsided grin, it was Ty this morning. At the newly promoted Ensign's side is 'Brad', aka DUM-54R, the pit droid given to her as a gift by a certain Lieutenant in Rogue Squadron. Stepping out of the lift, Ty holds out her hand and the droid plops a datapad into it. "Okay, what's first?" she asks, her hazel eyes going over the screen even as she stops short. She stops short because a trio of MSE droids suddenly arrives, whistling and beeping excitedly in unison morning greetings. "Good Morning George the Fourth, Sixth and Thirteenth," she says, letting the trio circle her a few times before she moves on. "Right, so we've got these A-wings, that X-wing, and these B-wings. Okay, that's not so bad," she notes with a nod of her head, yawning, but smiling even more despite the obvious lack of sleep in her expression. "Well, I just had another encounter with a TIE Avenger over the weekend; I'm going over the after-action report again." Talia sighs again, adding, "I ended up putting a couple of laser bolts int' his backside, but he got away... This pilot isnae even worthy t' tie Chase's shoelaces, his skills are so bad, and he still ended up getting away, because the Avenger is that much more survivable than the A-Wing..." Mella nods "your the pilot and I am just a tech. But give me the plans to a the Avenger and I will find its weakness over some time." It's not just a familiar voice that draws Ty's attention, but the topic of conversation that does. "What's this?" asks Ty as she steps over the circling MSE droids, Brad dutifully following after her, nearly tripping over the excited Georges, flailing as he does so. The poor pit droid stumbles left then right, flailing before ctaching himself on the ladder of a B-wing before he tumbles over a series of barrels causing even more of a scene. not that Ty seems to even notice. Ty, for her part, is focused on Talia as she moves over towards the obsidian-skinned woman, waving her hand, the one with the datapad in it curiously. "You've downed how many Avengers, you're a Second-El-Tee, and you're complaining that an Avenger, something that is produced en masse and made as cheaply as possible by the Empire to be produced in force, is superior to your A-wing?" she asks with an upraised eyebrow. "The Avenger is a piece of kark, a flimsy piece of kark at that. There's nothing to it. It's plastisteel and a prayer to whatever higher power the pilot believes in that keeps that thing together. And you think it's superior to the A-wing?" Ty's voice brings a smile to Talia's face, even as the comment turns somewhat sour. "Unfortunately, the survivability is considerably greater." She hands the datapad over to Ty, so that she can review the data. "The reason I got all those kills is because, for the most part, their pilots suck. Hard. They practically offer themselves up t' me, and even so, it takes me longer t' put them in their ash-shroud than it should." Talia sighs a little bit, and turns back to Mella. "If there wos a way t' punch through their shields more easily, I could kill them all, and take a flying poodoo on their ashes..." Mella leans against a fighter as her com unit gives a beep "no wrong com number commander... no its ok." she un conects it and then says to Talia "you know Talia I thought in your age you would understand on how you have a large army most of your fighters will not be that great as you cant super train every one." Ty considers as she looks over the datapad and shakes her head. "Did it ever occur to you, Talia, that the pilot might have actually BEEN good?" she asks, tossing the pad back to the woman, "And they may have been toying with you? I hear they like to do that, you know." Stretching, almost languidly, Ty smiles, refusing to be placed in any sort of dour mood. "Still, you're here, in one piece, and so is your ship. And ya' know they were watching. The Imperial Control and Grip on their own men obviously isn't all it's refuted to be. Good to know." "Ty, ye could have flown that starfighter better than that blundering idiot did... And ye arenae even trained t' it." Well, one might say that those are strong words coming from Talia... "I hit him multiple times; the only thing I can think of is that the shields on the Avenger is at least hefty enough t' be able t' shrug off the laser cannons on the A-Wings... Most of me other kills, too, were multi-shot kills." Talia seems to think on that one for a bit. She then turns back to Mella, smiling sweetly. "True. That's where ye get yuir elite units from. On the other hand, if they're giving scrubs like this the Avenger... It makes me worry that the Avenger is quickly leaving the Empire's Elites-only state, and that the TIE Interceptors are goina get retired." Mella nods "well Talia you need to learn from your mistakes, and also rember all shields have a weakness/ So study what you done and look for that quick kill. As I doubt the NR is trying to update there equipment." "Maybe not in a TIE, no," states the Ensign as she looks at Talia for a moment. "We sort of don't have any of them laying around for training, and I hadn't checked to see if the simms had any controls set to their configuration. Though, I am certain there are some training simms for covert operations that likely could be adjusted to TIE settings if necessary," notes the Technician after a moment's contemplation. Then the woman shifts and hands her own datapad over to the pit droid. "Brad, take this to Harris, have him start on the A-Wings first, then the B-wings, since we only have the one X-wing with damage," she notes to the droid. Brad offers a salute to his helmeted head, then spins around quickly, wobbling with a bit of a whistle. The droid wanders off, finding the Second Deck Officer some distance away and handing the datapad over before picking up some equipment and helping out as well. This leaves Ty free with the other two women for the moment, as she peers at them with her hazel eyes. "That is an interesting concern. I would certainly make a note of it in your AAR, emphasizing it at the end so Command is well aware of your concerns, Talia. Tactics may be adjusted so that kills are shared between wingmen, however, rather than separate individuals," she notes then with a shrug. "Well, I'm goina have a talk with Master Badiri in the near future t' see if he was blowing smoke up me hoop when he said that he had the specs for his Actis, and nae just whot they could reverse-engineer whot he had available." Talia chuckles a little, adding, "I wonder whot might happen if it turns out that the Actis' generators are indeed more advanced, and compatible, with the ones in the RZ-1." She looks to Mella, perhaps a bit bemused, then back to Ty. "I wonder if we have the ability t' design a new starfighter, based on that." Mella hmms as she ponders that "Well in therie yes, but doing a new ship is always hard, even the smallest of retro fit is a pain in the ass." An eyebrow is arched upwards as Ty's curiosity is piqued momentarily. "I'll have to see the specs that Master Badiri provides. It may be true, it may not." A hand is waved towards Mella as the twin-tailed Tech nods. "She's right, even minor retro-fits are a pain the the shaak's ass," she notes with a roll of her shoulders. "As far as designing a new one, well, you'd need engineers, not just Tech's for that. Though, there are some of them laying about these parts, I'm certain," is offered, as Ty glances around, her eyes glancing over some of the fighters, before looking back at Talia. The woman seems about to say something, but in the end, she doesn't, her jaw closing without speaking whatever it was she had intended. Alan Grey rode back in from the field outside on an empty repulsor skiff with 5er0, his M4 droid, hovering at his side and providing a rather nice display for him to work on without cradling a datapad. Currently, it appears to be displaying, of all things, local airspace and a few spaceports further out from the city proper. "Alright, we'll schedule for five... Thank you. 5er0, end." Grey finished speaking into a comlink somewhere, then glanced about, spotting Ty in the process, "Ti'ilandria! Hello, there! Good to see you. Want to come watch the skeet shooting? I've got the new ionization chamber circuitry installed, and we've got the test rig out on the field for full-scale verification in a few minutes!" Mella gives what Ty said and adds in "for my astro mech droid design I found parts missing that I dont know about. So she is right we will need more engineers for the design of a new ship." "Skeet shooting?" Talia's almost-fevered pitch is lost in her curiosity, as she turns towards the skiff and the new arrivals. Shaking her head, she turns back to Mella and Ty, adding, "That is too true; I'm considering taking courses for that as well, since if it's goina get done, someone'll likely need t' step up and do it herself." She then tilts her head towards Grey, asking, "Whot is skeet shooting?" There is a pause and Ty is distracted. "Skeet shooting? What is this ... skeet shooting? What is a skeet and why are you shooting it?" she asks, giving the Midshipman a very confused look. Indeed there is a pause as Ty seems to try to phathom this 'skeet shooting' and picture what this might entail. No doubt she is grossly incorrect in her assumptions and the picture she has in her head is completely wrong by the furrowed brow, the repeated blinks, and then the peer at Grey. "It's not going to hurt any of my ships, is it?" Turning back to Talia, Ty nods. "There is nothing like cross-training, after all. Really, knowing how to fly the machines you fix makes you better at fixing them. You understand them better, how they bank and turn, how they jig and zig, how they fire, what their thrust should feel like, and how it feels like when it's sluggish and something is wrong," she notes with a wave of her hand, before turning back to Grey, waiting for an answer one what 'Skeet Shooting' is. "Oh, it's simple. The turbolaser cannons are fixed now, but we can't count them as properly fixed at this stage without actually firing them. A flight of five drones have been launched and will be approximately overhead in the upper atmosphere in a a few minutes or so. At that time, the canoon rigged up outside is going to engage them. Those decoys are called 'skeet', I believe. If all works, we're going to turn them into what's called 'chaff'. If not, then ... well." Grey's explanation trails off at about this point. "Simply put, it's a free fireworks show." "Ahh. Now I see..." Talia smiles, then sighs... "And now 'tis time for me t' have a talk with some of me flightmates. A few of them are, how should I put it... Overly jumpy?" She smiles, and adds, "It makes for a good laugh, if nae anything else, if they dinnae do it in battle. There, well..." Talia shakes her head. "Better t' get the green pilots worked in properly before they end up in an urn." She gets up from her seat on a rack of non-armed concussion missiles, and begins on her way to the turbolift, muttering, "Karkin' newbs..." Peering after Talia, Ty raises a hand after the woman. "Don't be too hard on them," she offers, "Some people are just naturally twitchy," she offers, in a town that almost sounds like self-defense. Then she turns back to Grey and tilts her head to the side. "Well, if it's free... I rarely turn down free," she notes with a grin. "It's your show, Midshipman," she offers with a wave of her hand, before running her other through one of the twin tails. There is a pause, and Ty looks back towards the turbolift, then turns back to smile at Grey again. "Well, hop on then. The turbolaser rig's a short ride out into the field and targeting's on manual-adjusted auto. Think we've got..." Grey glanced at 5er0, who promptly projected a rather large numeric countdown. "Eight minutes before those drones are in range. Thanks, 5er0." "What? Okay." Grey answered his comlink, "Launch's delayed a bit. Maybe a half hour. The drone programmer's on the fritz." Ty nods a bit then. "Good, I'd rather walk or jog out to the field, honestly," she says looking down at her knees. "I'll never be able to keep up with Wrista if I keep taking the easy way to places," she notes with a deep inhale. The young Ensign then smiles up at the Midshipman. "Come on down, walk with me," she says with a wave of her hand. "You can program the lift to move along side us. If you need to ride after a bit, that's fine. But I'm going to walk the entire way," she says with a firm and determined nod. Digging into her pocket then, she pulls out her commlink and taps it. "Harris, good. I'm checking on something, you got ... yes, he's fine. Yes.. what kind of ..." Suddenly Ty's cheeks burst into red and the Ensign clears her throat. "Stop that. You got everything under control? Brad can stay here. Good, good. You've got my link, I can get back here in a hurry. Overseeing a weapon's test that Midshipman Grey is performing. Ayeah. No, he's not pointing the guns at me. Harris... grrr. Fine, fine. Behave, please," she says with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes, before moving towards the doors of the hangar. Mella nods to the two "you both go and have fun, I will see if I can come by and play with the Skeet range later if I am aloud." Sometime two or three minutes ago, a quiet figure stepped through the main entrance to the Republic military's primary hangar. Of course, this place is so immense in its proportions that when Badiri arrives, it's barely noticed by anyone other than the security guard on duty. It takes the Mashi a few minutes to get all the way across the tarmac to a position close to where the others are located. And when he gets there, rather than doing anything work-related, he navigates toward the nearest caff dispenser with obvious interest in that. He's awake enough, but aside from evolution, he sure has a hard time understanding humans' diurnal predilections. He's here for something, but that can come after caffeine. As Talia gets out of her meeting, she smiles, noting that everyone else has already headed out to the launch area. Looking to one speeder parking position, Talia hops onto her swoop, making her way through the hangar at an almost criminally-slow speed compared to how fast she could rip through... She waits until she gets clear of the major traffic areas before she prepares to let it rip... Something catches her eyes, though, and she notes that something looking like a shadow is stalking the caff machine. "I suppose I could use a little bit o' that before the Skeet Shoot comes up..." Tilting her head to the side, Ty turns around, catching sight of Talia on her swoop, peeling off towards the caff dispensers. An eyebrow arches upwards and the TechGirl pauses peering in that direction before she blinks again. "Hold up, Grey," she offers, motioning for the pair to swing in that direction as well. The young woman tromps her way after Talia, hands in her pockets to peer at the dark, cat-like figure. As she gets closer, the young woman's hazel eyes narrow as she seems to be trying to place the creature. There is something vaguely familiar, but Ty just can't seem to place where she has seen the shadowy cat-creature before just yet. Instead she nods her greetings and smiles. Mella looks around and says "ahh screw my report, I will come with you if you dont mind?" said as she turns off her comlink knowing she will be getting a few calls to get her work done soon. As the others begin to congregate around him, Badiri has a Wookiee-sized coffee cup in one paw and the handle of the carafe delicately pinched between the thumb and finger of his other, much too small for his hand. He's not wearing any military uniform, and even though he'd checked in at the gate, he suspects that's the reason folks are heading his way now. Blinking, his cup already at his lips, Badiri peers with golden eyes over the top of it at Ti'ilandria and Talia and anyone who's come with them. "Caff?" he asks innocently, lowering his drink and extending the comically held coffee pot to the others. "Please..." says Talia, finding an appropriately-sized cup near the caff dispenser, and holds it out delicately, as if she were in some high-class restaurant. Odd, that. "So, how have things been since Toprawa? Are the relief efforts going better now?" It's kind of amusing, too, since her swoop is still running outside... "Please excuse me, just one second..." Mella looks to the cafe "I dont drink that stuff, I tend to get handsy and jitery and very jumpy. I think its what they put in it that wierds me out." For a long moment, Ty's hazel eyes peer consideringly at the caff, before she finally lifts a hand and shakes her head. "No, I better skip it," she finally says with a long deep sigh. Turning, Ty walks over and nudges a box that pops open. Reaching into it, Ty pulls out a bottle of water, before closing the box and turning back to the others. "I didn't realize you had your swoop here, Talia. I should have, duh, I suppose," she notes with a wave of her head, before looking back to Badiri. Finally, as the young woman twists off the top to her drink, Ty points at the shadowy-cat. "I've seen you somewhere. I'm sorry, I just can't quite place where, an' it's just buggin' me." Then Ty offers a bit of a shrug, before sipping at her water and wrinkling her nose after she gulps it down. "Blarg. The things we do ..." she murmurs, rolling her shoulders. Badiri has to set his own cup down before he can pour anything. He needs the free paw in order to balance the bottom of the carafe and keep himself from dropping it. "Here you go, then," he rumbles politely as the coffee cascades neatly into her cup. "Toprawa has been as well as one could expect from a planet that recently hosted Imperial death camps," he answers. He shifts his eyes toward Mella and Ti'ilandria and nods before he returns the pot to its warmer. His gaze lingers on Ti thoughtfully, "You seem familiar to me, as well, but not directly so. Hmmm, did you race your swoop at the Wheel, perhaps? I was there briefly for some unfortunate business around the same time." Alan Grey sitting on the edge of his skiff, half-staring at the distant weapons testing platform, which was well away from things that can't handle a little overpressure or fire or radiation. There was a newly repaired capital turbolaser cannon set up on one of the rigs there, aimed into the sky, but the target drones that were supposed to be launched into the upper atmosphere for it to be tested on had been delayed by mechanical issues at the spaceport. No matter, Grey had taken this time to fall into a sort of half-nap, leaning his head against a stanchion and staring blankly with hooded eyes. Much of the activity at the caff dispenser went unnoticed. Quiet... unobtrusive... that second term fits Iaco all the time. The first? Only of late. He slips into the hangar ostensibly to keep an eye on folks and make sure they're doing okay. But, he sticks to the lingering shadows if there are any. At the moment he's not really wanting to poke his nose in. Anonymity is his best friend these days. Talia smiles a bit, as she adds, in Ty's general direction, "Badiri is the one who has that Actis, and the specs for it. He's one of the guys that NRI had me drop off on Toprawa, just after the Navy got kicked out of orbit." She turns towards Badiri then as her swoop settles to the ground, asking, "So, did ye find the bastich who ordered the massacre of the citizens there?" She seems a little angry about that, something Badiri might easily pick up on. Mella sighs as her com unit turns on as she forgets the emergcy over ride for cases like this "Yes commander, no the report shold be to you in 20 minutes.... They did what, I told them not to put clunk in to anything that can go faster then a human running... what did the major punish them with... ok I am cool with that." As the com call is droped she looks to Badiri "oh I would love to look at the scmatics." 5er0, Grey's M4 unit, blatted briefly and bumped against his head with a distinctive CLONK. "Ah! Alright, I see. Yes, just a receive confirm'll do. Tell them to launch into the holding pattern." Grey hopped off of the skiff and strode over to Ty, after a little bit of searching. By extension, he also approached the largish knot of people. "Hope I'm not interrupting. They've fixed the drone issue. Who's up for free fireworks displays?" The party seems to be over by the caff dispensers in the Main Hangar on Solo Base. At least, that is where the small crowd is starting to gather. As Badiri is introduced and introduces himself, both of Ty's eyebrows shoot upwards, then Ty works very hard to lower them slowly. "Ah, yes. The lightshow," she nods towards Badiri. "I was there on the Wheel for that," she says waving a hand. "We brought Master Valios home while I'm it was you that Luke got a ride home with," she says. Another drink of the water is given, and Ty purses her lips to look at it. "I don't see how this is supposed to make you any less twitchy than Caff or Fizzy Glug but ... mmmmm," hazel eyes dart to Badiri, then around at the rest of the group and Ty snaps her lips shut momentarily. There is but a pause and then the Ensign smiles. "Midshipmen Grey, come here just a moment. You still have a few minutes, yes?" she asks, waving a hand to the other technician. "Alan Grey, this is Jedi Master Badiri. Get to know your local Jedi. They don't bite, and only frown if you kick them in the shin for the most part," she notes with what sounds like an air of experience. "Oh, is it time? Well, let's see how your repair work has done, mmm?" she suggests, nodding to the others, and moves over towards Grey. Her Midshipman, after all. She's got to be responsible and pay attention. And she's curious to see how he did. Another gulp of water, and another sigh as her gaze glances around, finally pausing on another figure in the shadows. Her free hand pulls out her datapad and the woman thumbs a message on it before sending it off with a half-quirking smile. Mella erms "well what clearnce do you need to get to the temple? I only asks as I never thought of visting there." said as her datapad beeps "no Clunk I doubt I would need special clearence for you... you little ego gruber." said as she looks to the larger then normal datapad but the last part said in a grumble. A small bleep alerting him to the message, Iaco gives an almost dramatic sigh as he pulls the datapad out of its hip-holster and looks at the screen. He tucks it away and shrugs his shoulders. "I'll take a glug if you got any..." his even-tond voice announces as he steps in closer. His eyes flicker over towards Grey and the man's oversized popgun. He doesn't say anything, but just meanders a bit closer. "Master Jedi." intones Iaco towards Badiri in greeting. It seems the two of them are at least passingly familiar with one another. But when he gets closer to Ty, he murmurs more softly, "How is Lieutenant L'ygr recovering?" Badiri's chuckle is deep and friendly in response to Mella's question -- and the droid at her heels as his ears cant toward its whistles. "You only need to know someone to get into the Jedi Temple. The clearance is for seeing the specs of a military grade starfighter, but if you work on these ships, then you probably have that already. Lieutenant Dorran has raised some interesting questions about my Eta-2 that I personally can't answer. Engineering is /not/ my strong suit, I'm afraid." The Mashi looks toward Iaco and dips his head, seeming unsurprised by his sudden appearance. He also appears regretful about the Ti'ilandria-described lightshow. "We would have much preferred to fight elsewhere if we'd been given the chance. Putting people in danger is not our way, but the Sith chose the location of that fight, and the only way to defend the innocent was to stop them. I thank you for bring Master Valios and her Padawan home." Grey, for his part, expressed his surprise in an uncharacteristically long moment of silence while examining Badiri, "Ah, erm. Hello, Master Jedi. Just... ah... just getting ready for a laser test. A lightshow of our own. Heh. Haaaah..." He was at a brief loss at words, and subsequently at a permanent loss for words. Mella shakes her head "no I am just a Battle tech for the second divsion." Moving over to the box, Ty kicks it open again, and pulls out a Fizzy Glug, tossing it to Iaco with a smile. "I'm the Starfighter Tech in this group," she motions to the three techs - Grey, Mella and herself. "But I'm certain that any and all can give good ideas. I'll work on the clearances, Master Badiri," she notes to the Mashi-cat-like-jedi-creature. Then she waves a hand at him, her cheeks flushing red. "Ah... heh. Yeah... well, I //know// that's not your way. Had a talk with Luke about that. Heh. Cleared the air on a few things, too. We'll just blame Lieutenant L'gyr and his bad timing about inviting me out to dinner on our being there for the lightshow, really. And glad we could help, really," she says with a smile. Then Ty glances at Iaco, peering at him for a moment. "He's doing better, thanks to you," she notes, reaching out to gently put a hand on the man's arm. "It'll be a while yet before he's back to his old self completely, but he's doing better. He's got a manditory evaluation period, but he knew that was coming, so it doesn't sting. I think he might be aching to fly again, just to prove that he can. Not in battle, mind you, that may take a bit. But just to fly." There is a pause and Ty nods. "Thank you, Iaco. Now come on. It's a weapons test. Midshipman Grey caught some end of lifed capacitors and replaced them all, and needs to test the replacements before the guns can be returned to active duty," she notes. A smile is offered to Grey as she approaches the Midshipman again with a smile. "Now, now. If the Grand Master of the Jedi order insists on me calling him by his first name, I somehow doubt Master Badiri is going to pounce on and bite you. I've found Jedi to be rather likable, actually. So stop stammering, Midshipman, and let's see how well you've done, eh?" Mella com head set goes off again and sighs "Yes sir I will be on my way." she looks to others there "some times I wish I never taken officer rank." said as she bows her shoulders and turns away to leave. "Midshipman Grey," Badiri greets. Watching the human's apparent awkward moment, the Mashi does the simplest thing to give him something to focus on. He puts out a hand. Granted, it's a large paw covered in black fur, but it's a hand nonetheless and a familiar gesture combined with friendly eye contact. "It is good to meet you. Thank you for serving the New Republic." At Ti'ilandria's suggestion, Badiri dips his muzzle and continues speaking to the man, "I would be very interested in seeing your demonstration, if you would be so kind as to allow my presence." A sigh, and Iaco shakes his head. "Ty, I wasn't asking you to.." and he shakes his head as his eyes drift towards her hand on his arm. He's caught the drink and was halfway through opening it when he kinda stopped speaking and halfway froze. A breath.. two.. and he shakes his head once more, "Seriously, the less we speak about what happened, the better. I'm just glad he's doing better. He did make me a promise after all." and then he goes back to his usual, impudent and knowing grin. The sort that implies he has a secret he's not gonna tell. And then he turns his eyes towards the guntech and doesn't really say anything there, but merely finishes opening his drink and steps back a half pace to simply observe the upcoming demonstration. At least recognizing the hand and the motion, Alan Grey, offers the proper response and takes it for a firm shake, out of deeper-set reflexes than the current, benign version of stark terror. "It is my... umm... own honor to be able to serve. If you'll come this way out to the platform, we've... 5er0?" The droid warbled and represented its numeric countdown from the projector. "Six minutes or so until the drones are in range. Ty and... Iaco, was it? Right. Is anyone here a good shot? There's a manual adjust for the autotarget by telemetry..." "Decent, not good," admits Ty with a wave of her hand and a shake of her head, moving to follow after Grey. "But if you don't want to do the honors, and no one else steps forward, sure. But ONLY if no one else steps forward," she notes firmly. Hazel eyes drift over then towards Badiri, and the young Ensign lets the grin that was bubbling beneath the surface erupt upon her lips, parting them widely with relief. She gives the Jedi Master a nod of thanks, before clasping her hands behind her back, still holding that bottle of water. "Master Badiri, maybe after this, if you've time, I've got a question for you, please," she notes in a lazy tone. Then her attention falls back on Iaco, and the woman purses her lips and furrows her brows again. "Oh, you just can't do that," she says with a shake of her head. "Raxis hasn't said anything about any promises he made to you. You can't just hint at that and then leave it be. You're a cruel man," she teases Iaco. Much better. Badiri looks pleased to see Alan relax a bit after a moment. He may have big teeth and sharp claws, but those who know him can vouch for the Mashi's gentle nature. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a shot with capital scale weapons," he admits, "I'm barely proficient in a starfighter. Why, are you offering lessons, too? I'm always up for more learning. If we're lucky, I won't take out any inbound civilian traffic." One ear twists toward Ti'ilandria's voice before his eyes follow. "Questions? Sure, I'm willing to answer questions, most of the time. What's the subject?" "Indeed I am. Cruel cruel cruel." remarks Iaco. Then he eyes the Turbolaser and shakes his head, "Odds are if I'm aiming at space, I'll miss it... even if I'm firing from a ship." he offers, shrugging his shoulders. Nope, he's not gonna spill the beans to Ty, and he offers a conspiratorial smirk to the woman as he clasps his hands behind his back. Then he looks back to Grey and shrugs, "Really, my talents lie in computers... not with weapons." and Infoltration and such, but that's not a subject for public discussion, nosiree! Grey shakes his head, cheerily, "You can't take out civilian traffic if you tried. The weapon's transverse is limited to plus/minus fifteen degrees, the elevation between eighty and seventy degrees. And traffic control's cleared this sector of space an hour ago. I'm not much of a shot myself, but the drones will just be flying in a holding pattern. As many tries as you want, really." He's guided the group over to the rig now, where thick cables run up to a heavy turbolaser cannon two stories tall and maybe a third of that wide at the base. A set of skeletal-looking framework holds the weapon, as if it was in a cradle, and there were two carts of diagnostic equipment running next to it. A makeshift gunner's station was set down next to it, a morass of cables running to the platform drive motors and the cannon itself. There were also a number of mounted telescopes and other optical equipment standing nearby. "Come now, nobody wants a first go?" "Well, now that I have frustrations to work out," offers Ty, barely resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at Iaco. Blast this promotion! "All right, I'll try for one. But Alan, you've got to try as well, this is your work, you get the pleasure as well. Seriously," she notes stepping up with a hop-skip and a jump onto the platform. One last look at Iaco, and Ty just shakes her head at the man. "Cruel," she says again with a smile. Then the woman smiles at Badiri. "It can wait until afterwards," she says with a smile, then waves the Jedi upwards to the platform. "I can, however, show you the basics of what I am doing if you wanted to know." Ty steps back a little to motion towards buttons, and screens explaining what the telemetry and targeting computers do, before checking everything, and firing. There is a loud >>WHINE-WHOOSH<< of the weapon, but instead of a discharge, something obviously isn't right. Looking down, there's only enough time for Ty to give a startled expression before red alarms flash across the screen and the woman winces, trying to twist away as the capacitor overheats again and erupts from it's housing with a great deal of force. Grey peers up at the open vent panel and the jet of evaporated coolant that just erupted from it, "Yup, vent safety just blew. This is a good batch of capacitors. Give it 30 seconds to cool and repressurize, and try it again. Try 90 percent instead of full... timing's a bit off." The sour smell of the vapors drifted down in the breeze, turning weak stomachs. "Three... two... one... " mutters Iaco, and then right on cue, that discharge hits. "Yeah, that worked precisely as intended." he mutters, one hand going into his trouser pocket, and the other lifting his fizzyglug to his lips to take a sip. "I dunno why people say this stuff gives'em the jitters. Doesn't seem to have any effect on me..." . . o o O O (Neither does alcohol though. Weird.) Badiri's ears fold flat against the loud noise as he draws on the Force to dim his hearing. He's somewhat surprised the humans haven't opted to use some of the hearing protection that's undoubtedly available. A split second before Ti'ilandria squeezes the firing pin, there is a hum in the Force of something wrong -- yet not critically dangerous. The Mashi hisses through his teeth and recoils away from the capacitor just as it blows, lifting his hands protectively toward the others but unable to really /do/ much about it. It's good that no real explosion happens. When Iaco adds something that indicates he /expected/ that to happen, the Mashi gives a lash of his tail and looks irked. The expression passes quickly, though, as he shakes his head and clears his mind with a simple exercise. There is a pause from Ty, stuck in her wince-slash-cringe, after all, she saw the effect of a blown capacitor with a faulty vent valve just recently. Giving a faint sigh, the young woman nods, quickly punching in the suggested reduction in power, before she arches an eyebrow. Half-turning towards Iaco, Ty doesn't complete it however, her lips turning down, saddened, before she looks back to the weapon again. Reaching for her bottle, she drinks from it as she lets the time pass, allowing the proper cooling to happen, before she shifts and taps on the screen again. "All right," she offers with a wave of her hand, and a bit of a forced perkiness to her voice. "Let's see if I can avoid destroying the hard work that our dear Midshipman has done, all together," she notes with a smile. This time, things go much more smoothly. There is the >>WHINE-WHOOSH<< and a green laser shoots out from the barrel of the gun, streaking off into the sky. Just moments later, it connects with the target, the drone, and a small fiery explosion occurs in orbit as the target is destroyed. That was a success, at least. "Okay. Now, before I break this... next," notes the Ensign as she steps away from the gun. "I much prefer guns on smaller craft, I admit," she offers with a nod as she continues to back away. Glacning towards Badiri, Iaco shrugs, "I heard the overload building, but the sound was one of a dissipating overload, not an explosive one. There are different sounds." It's as if somehow, the guy understood what Badiri might've been thinking. But, he's a student of body language, and he just shrugs and takes another sip of his drink. "Well, looks like it's working right now. I think it just had to vent that exess energy to get itself set up for normal operations." "How high up are those drones? Did you notice the range? Low orbit? High?" Badiri asks Ti'ilandria as she climbs out of the command chair. His arms are crossed over his chest as he observes the exercise. It's a windy day, and the stiff breeze causes the tabards hanging down from his obi, or waistband, to flap lightly off to his left. As he watches this activity, he's on the verge of deciding to give it an attempt. He glances over at Iaco, "Could've told the rest of us, huh?" Grey inspects the flaming, streaming debris even now consuming themselves as they fell through the upper reaches of the sky, "Looks safe, they'll land seaside, certainly." He steps up onto the firing console, "Might as well try my own fingers with this first, eh? Oh, and you're all welcome to the optics over there to see the shots closer up. Here goes..." There was another >>WHINE-WHOOSH<< as Grey fired off another shot, this one dialed clear up to 95% rated power. The muzzle concussion in atmosphere was quite obvious as a light thump to the chest, even though the muzzle was a good seven or eight meters up. The green bolt dived into the sky and struck one of the specks of drones in the distance, creating a rather prominent fireball that scattered flaming trails like a living, writhing octopus. "Just a klick or two above the stratopause, well below orbital, so no debris worries. Don't worry about the fellows groundside, those are right over nothing but forest and grasslands." He answered, as he peered through a set of mounted binoculars at the dissipating fireball. Ty opens her mouth, then snaps it shut, looking at Grey a moment, before nodding to Badiri and waving him up. "Be my guest," she says, her lips still pursed into a fine line. Absently the woman taps a finger on her arm, considering something, but she doesn't speak about whatever it is. Ty moves to stand next to Iaco, however, just standing there, without saying a word. She doesn't even drink from her water right now, watching the weapon being tested and whoever is firing it. And still that finger is tapping on her arm. Transforming from confidently knowledgable, to kinda sheepish, Iaco shrugs his shoulders, "Well, to be perfectly honest, It only just occured to me -as- it was happening. It wasn't something I really was thinking about. Just kinda... " He shakes his head, "I guess it's another of those oddball buried factoids in my head that I know without knowing how I know. Sorry." That said, he sets the empty can into a recepticle, and turns his eyes towards Ty for just a moment, "Maybe I oughta just go... find something to do with my time." he offers, really not sure what else to do or say right now. Oh how he hates his lack of real memory. "Well, there's more life on this planet than just the sentient life," Badiri remarks thoughtfully. The forests and sea in particular would be full of it. "I take it the drones are designed to burn up in the atmosphere on their way down? Nice shot, by the way." Sensing Ty's odd shift in mood, Badiri turns in her direction and gaugesher while he waits on Grey's response. "Don't worry about it, Iaco," he adds at the end, "no harm done." "Yeah. The hull's combustible plastoid. There'll be nothing but fine ash spread across a square klick by the time it finishes falling. Sure you don't want to take a couple potshots of your own, Badiri? Iaco? We've got all of space as a backstop, and there's a first time for everything. Including shooting at things with a gun the size of a house. Might come in useful some day." Grey offered, waving at the firing console. "Ty?" "Sure, I'll give it a shot," Badiri finally gives in. As Alan gets out of the seat, the Mashi takes his place and uses a moment to familiarize himself with the controls. "Nnkay, yeah. I think I remember how these work." Settling back, Badiri gazes up, past the barrels toward the sky. He runs another quiet, simple exercise to calm his mind and expel stray thoughts, simultaneously ignoring the targeting display while he falls strangely silent. For a moment, anyone who doesn't know him well might expect him to be hesitating or stalling. Then his black finger squeezes down on the weapon's actuator. The classic whine of power-up is followed shortly by discharge as the entire housing jostles with the suddenly released power and a fireball erupts many kilometers above them. Shaking her head, Ty offers a smile to Iaco. "Stay, it's fine," she notes to Iaco, even as Badiri speaks to Grey and climbs up into the gunner's position. "Just..." Ty motions out towards where the falling debris is with one hand. "I KNOW the hull is combustible plastoid it's just ... I dunno, suddenly I'm worried. I'll have to ask for a flyby after this to make sure everything is fine, that there were no large burning chunks of debris, or whatever," she notes as a soft aside to Iaco before she sips at her drink. Now the Ensign turns her gaze up to the weapon and the Jedi Master there curiously. She watches him, watches what he's doing, curiously as her head tilts to the side, before nodding. "Seen Javin do that," she notes to no one in particular. "Get that look on his face, on Corscuant when we were slicing into IGN." There is another pause as Ty looks out towards where the target has been destroyed and she purses her lips. "I'm just being overly paranoid, I think. Everything will be fine," she says with a roll of her shoulders. Alan Grey worked his jaw around several times, "... That is quite some shot, Badiri. Firing with almost full manual override there. Pretty solid hit, too, clear through it. I...." He peers back through the binoculars, "... yes, clear through the engine block. Don't think there's anything left bigger than a thumb." "Say, I heard how Skywalker made the shot, over at Yavin. Do you do that, too?" Grey rested a finger on the ON/OFF toggle for the targeting displays. Shaking his head, Iaco just falls silent. No more needs to comment on things here. He just lets everyone play with the gun and have fun there. Rigt now, he's just looking inward and trying to figure out why he knows all this crap.. again. This is something he's been doing every day, many times a day, and still there's no difference in earlier attempts and this one. Maybe if he tried to slice the info, but then Ty's words sink in and he smirks, "Slicing... on Coruscant?" he asks softly. If Badiri hears Grey at all, he doesn't reply. There is a nudge through the Force that he should take another shot, and so he calmly depresses the firing trigger again after rotating the cannon fractionally to starboard. The barrels erupt in hot green lances that cause a second explosion about a kilometer from the first. He never even noticed when the targeting reticle flashes out of existence two seconds before he fired. After the second drone is destroyed, Badiri pauses. He blinks like someone's father looking up from the newspaper after mom's been trying to get his attention for the last two minutes. And his gaze goes from the monitor, finally noticing the missing reticle, to the switch and therby Alan's finger upon it. A short laugh leaves him, "Sorry. I'd have missed it entirely without a little extra focus." "Uh, yeah," says Ty, glancing at Iaco, blushing faintly. "You know the report about that info that got leaked on IGN in the Imperial sector," she says slowly, before moving off towards the weapons platform. "Master Jedi, if you're done, a moment?" she asks, looking at the weapon again with a nod. "Go ahead and get the last one, Midshipman," offers Ty with a warm smile to Grey. It appears that she isn't wanting to take another attempt unless someone straps her into that chair. "... whoa." "That's... ah... very well done, Badiri. I suppose the cannon's in good working order, then. Let's try something nice for the last one, I'll set it to random-walk evasive and turn off the telemetry. See how well a ... well... 'live' engagement feels, eh?" Grey entered these commands to the console, then flicked the switch to turn off the control telemetry, "it'll still stay in roughly the same area, mind you. But it'll be more of a- ... wait..." He squinted into the distance, then quickly switched to optics. "What in the blazes... there's something else in the area. I told them to clear the airspace for two hours! Hold fire, hold on..." He made thumb adjustments of the zoom and focus, "... there's a civilian aircar in the range, fling straight up at the drone... it's yawing all ov- yeah, the driver's definitely drunk... Oh dear stars he's chasing the droneitsgonnacraaaaAAAAAA!!!" The two specks merged. Quiet. Iaco inclines his head to the left and lets Ty's words rattle around in his head. Well, this explains a few things then. But then the specks merge and he blinks a bit, looking skyward. "Somehow, I doubt there are any survivors to rescue." he states with absolute calm and a total lack of empathy. Ti'Ilandria is already pulling out her comlink, looking up at the Tower at Solo Base, before her attention is pulled back to the speck of fire that is all she can make out. "The Air-car in quadrant X-ray, Alpha, Niner. How many souls? It just collided with a military drone during a military excercise. Emergency and recovery vehicles are needed for the incident. Repeat, one civilian aircar and one military drone collided in what was supposed to be cleared military space, X-ray, Alpha, Niner." Nodding to whoever is on the other end of the comlink, Ty looks back to Badiri then just shakes her head. Whatever it was she was going to ask is going to have to wait, and by the downturn of her lips, the woman is not exactly pleased by the entirety of the situation. But then again, who would be. Talia notes what's going on very quickly, and she sighs. Taking the initiative, she breaks out her Obsidian Ghost Mask, the scary-looking, red, hell-fire eyed one, and slides it on. "Badiri, get yuir furry backside on me swoop! We have t' save them!" Talia looks about again, siddling up to where Badiri is, being very careful as she opens her arms, allowing the Mashi to try to share the one seat that the swoop has while she stays belted in... With the Force, Badiri senses the survivors a bit later than the others are able to see them. However, he's the only one able to confirm from down here that they're actually still alive. "Right," he replies to Talia as she pulls her swoop up beside him. The Mashi raises a leg over the saddle and settles on it behind her, putting fear away and ignoring thoughts of falling off this thing from more than a hundred feet in the air. His mind now is reaching to the Living Force, "You'll have to cover some horizontal distance to get us within range of where their momentum before the crash will throw them. They were heading north by northwest. I'm on. Go!" As she feels Badiri slide into place, Talia digs her heels into her Asteroid-3's lower fairings, doing her best both to keep herself on, and control the swoop while she speeds out to where she's calculated the accident victims would land... well, splat, if they aren't assisted shortly... She kicks the swoop into high gear as soon as she's sure Badiri's about as safely in position as he possibly can get on what is essentially a rocket with a seat... Shaking his head, Iaco just looks about the room, "Repulsorpacks (kinda like parachutes)" would've been a good idea, but if they -were- drunk up there, it's their own fault whatever happens to'em." Still really not sympathetic, he just shrugs and walks over to the Turbolaser to offers, "Chances of zooming in and watching the rescue?" towards Grey. "Absolutely. There's another binoc set right on the other side. Just do a wide sweep and zoom in, pretty spectacular, that wreck." Grey waved, while still staring intently into his set, "I think I see the bodies. Well, if they're alive. Three of them, I think, and they're in the middle of all the pieces of flaming drone and the non-flaming aircar. Lots of movement from the upper-level wind... altitude's down to 'bout twelve klicks... definitely unconscious..." He rambled on, slowly. Badiri has ridden enough speeders to lock his feet in place pretty quickly. Bare paws and hot swoop parts are a bad combination, but one of the first things he ever learned about swoops was how to ride them without burning himself. After all, it wouldn't do to melt boots, either! Holding onto Talia's waist, Badiri closes his eyes and reaches out to locate the four lives he and Dorran are about to save. His ears are flat as he shuts out the extraneous noise of rushing wind. The closer together they are, the easier these beings will be to save, that's a certainty. If they're too far apart, even his abilities may not be enough. "Talia," he says slow, "They're falling with the wreckage. I'm going to have to get them away from it, or you won't be able to dodge and this mess will end up with five victims instead of three. Don't put us right under them. Stop about a quarter kilometer short." He begins to reach toward them with the Force, testing their distance and how quickly they'll be within the range of his powers to stop them. "Are ye sure, that far away? After all, I used t' race swoops for a living..." Talia, of course, sends her swoop into top gear, dodging over the treetops as she goes. "I can get ye a hell of a lot closer than that, if ye need it..." says she, jinking out of the way of one of the closer bits of debris as she does so, even as she checks the horizon for more of what might be going on. "Some days I hate me life..." mutters she, as she closes in on the site... "Okay, then!" Badiri yells over the roar of the wind, "Get us as close as you can! I'll leave it to you!" As the Mashi begins to concentrate much in the same way he had while firing on the target drones, he quickly realizes the most obvious route is also the one most likely end up with dead civilians. Thinking fast, Badiri uses the Force to capture the widest and lightest piece of debris from the air car: its roof. Attempting to grasp it with the Force, Badiri knows his time is very, very short. His first attempt upon getting control of it is to move the large piece of metal to catch the /two/ people who are closest to it. He is silent now, focusing intently on his work with nothing left to offer Talia as he trusts her utterly with the piloting. Talia nods, "All right!" jinking and then diving out of the way of more of the debris, her years as a swooper (and even more years as a fighter pilot) having honed her skills to brilliant perfection as she powerslides around some more of the falling debris, eyes rapidly switching behind that frightening mask she wears, between the sky above, and the forest below... "Just let me ken when I can get us the hell out of here, all right?" She looks where a few craters have already been torn into the floor of the forest below... Peering through the optics, Grey continued the analysis of the situation, "Looks like they've... got a lid? Yeah... there's one... ... two... two..." He twitched the binoculars slightly to the west, "There's a gust coming, I can see it rippling the grass..." He twitched back, "Looks like two's scooped up... there's the gust hitting. Oh!" He watched the debris scatter into spiraling trails, spreading across the grasslands, "One more still falling, it's gonna be real close... now the cloud's expanded. A lot. Hope Talia's real with that swoop..." As she kickspins her swoop into position, it almost seems that Talia's standing it up on its tail, at least until some of the rest of the debris falls about her. In fact, it might appear that the roof that Badiri's now using to catch the victims of the crash should have landed where Talia's stalling for time, before she notes where Badiri's moving the 'roof', so that she can move in time with him, an almost poetic motion with the swoop as she keeps Badiri carefully in position, slowing the swoop slightly while she keeps herself in position. It might be a challenge to his continued concentration as Talia's swoop so abruptly changes direction and momentum, if Badiri didn't have more than a decade of experience at maintaining it. His face unnaturally relaxed considering everything he's doing. He moves the vehicle's upper plane quickly enough to get it underneath the last person falling, yet he'll need to begin slowing it down /immediately/ after capturing that individual. He is unaware of anything but the currents of the Force while he works, heeding every whisper from the "spirits" he grew up with as they talk him through the rescue. "Aaand there's the third one. Close catch, that one... bout six meters off... That's everyone, it looks like." Reports Grey, noticeably relieved. At about the same time, the wailing of sirens dopplered past him on its way to the now slightly-aflame grassland and jungle. Lowering the macrobinoculars, Iaco shakes his head. "Well, looks like he managed to do it in time. I was convinced that was not possible." he offers as he heads back to the cooler and grabs a bottle of water. A cool cucumber, that one. In spite of his calm demeanor, Badiri is working hard. His nostrils flare with great breaths that expand his chest as he moves his arms and empty hands like the conductor of a symphony among Coruscant's highest towers. His fingers spread out as his palms turn upward, biceps flexing as if he were catching them by hand. The auto ceiling heaves slightly and wobbles, slowing noticeably before it crashes into the canopy of the forest. By the sounds of it, the thing hits every branch of a vertical shaft on its way down. The Mashi heaves a breath from his lungs and opens his eyes, "Get us down, Talia." His hand rests on her shoulder, "Nice flying! Do you have a first aid kit on this thing?" "Unfortunately, nae. If ye kark up with a swoop, usually they need a vacuum cleaner for ye, nae a first aid kit..." Ahh, some of that sweet, dark sarcasm again... "Going... down..." says she, concentrating as she tries to weave her way between tree branches on their way down, trying to keep the two of them safe as they go, though trying to get there as fast as possible as well...